School of Geography

School of Geography2004/2005

University of LeedsLevel 3

Semester 1

Dr Rachael Unsworth

GEOG3360: Urban environments: towards sustainable cities

Lecture in Week 8: Sustainable development in developing country cities

8.1Tackling urban problems in developing countries

131 developing countries out of total 193 countries.

1.9 billion urban dwellers in developing countries, 2000.

The problems faced by developing countries have elements in common with those facing

the developed world, but some are different in nature or scale (see Lecture 2) and the means to tackle them are generally less well developed. (See governance and capacity – Lecture 6 handout). In some places, innovative ways have been found to overcome problems using low intervention, low cost, low tech methods to improve quality of life and longer term prospects for residents while protecting the natural environment – holistic approaches. The Local Agenda 21 process has helped to move this approach forward. Making cities liveable and improving long term prospects involves addressing the whole range of urban social, economic and environmental issues. There is a growing body of understanding about the nature of problems and the impacts of different sorts of intervention and the types of policies, programmes and projects which are more or less likely to benefit people and the environment.

8.2Sustainable urban land use in developing country cities

… because "Land - its use and abuse - is the central problem of the city" (McAuslan, 1985 p13).

Lack of land rights is the ultimate cause of many environmental health problems that undermine quality of life.

Summary points:

Land is a finite resource (except for the potential for reclamation, but this is only economic where it is in severe shortage). Where urban populations are growing rapidly, there is great pressure on land for all uses, including residential. Shortages are made worse by speculators who buy up land and hoard it, hoping to make a large profit on resale. Those who cannot afford either to rent or buy land occupy it illegally: a large proportion (30-60%) of developing country urban households live in informal settlements. Some are on private land but much is owned by the municipalities. Some settlements are located in dangerous parts of cities – steep slopes, flood plains.

Shanties (informal structures) are often rented; squatter dwellings occupy land illegally. (Dickenson et al 1996 p211).

Eg. In Kenya's capital city, Nairobi, there are over 100 slum communities that are home to 2 million people. The residents of Nairobi's informal settlements constitute 55% of the city's total population, and yet they are crowded onto only 1.5% of the total land area in the city. And even that land is not theirs. These residents live in constant fear that their homes will be demolished or destroyed in a forced eviction.

UN Chronicle Volume XXXVIII, Number 1 (2001)

http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2001/issue1/0101p42.html

Informal occupation of land means that households do not have a secure asset against which to borrow, so building is of the lowest quality. They DO want to improve their housing, if given a chance.

What is to be done about the problems of urban land?

Policies that don’t work

· The solution does not necessarily lie in formulating ambitious master plans prescribing land use and planning public provision of infrastructure. Such plans are often unrealistic and cannot be implemented successfully (McAuslan 1985; Nagpaul 1988). It would be impossible to produce cities in which land uses are tidily arranged according to an optimal plan and in which all areas are developed legally and with a full range of infrastructure.

· Nor is unenforceable regulation of the private sector the answer. Over-ambitious codes and standards invite unscrupulous undercutting. The task of urban managers is to support productive investment while preventing enterprises from passing costs on to others (Hardoy et al 1992).

· Slum clearance and provision of low cost housing Still slum clearance goes on: 7 million people in 60 countries evicted 2001-2002 (Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions, quoted in World Urban Forum 2004, Dialogue on the urban poor).

The informal sector of employment and informal housing should not to be swept away. eg. Santiago in 1980s (Dockemdorf et al 2000, Environment & Urbanization p171-183) and attempting to provide low cost housing. Low cost housing is always in short supply, so costs are never low enough.

Policies that DO work:

Solutions that work

Establishing (at least limited) land rights for the poor enables them to have the security to invest in improvement and meet basic needs in appropriate, low tech ways. But Housing by People in Asia, No15, October 2003, p.3: When title is established, poor people are often tempted to sell their land holding and move once more to an insecure location.

Encouragement of financial institutions that support self-help – allowing communities to buy land and improve infrastructure and dwellings – mortgages and micro-credit.

Micro-credit: The system of small-scale micro-credit pioneered by the Grameen (=village) Bank in Bangladesh and BancoSol in Bolivia is taking root in various forms in scores of countries, reaching over 10 million borrowers with tiny loans that turn them into entrepreneurs, able to own and operate their own small businesses.

eg. Community Mortgage Programme, Philippines: since 1988, loans in 33 cities to over 300 projects. Thousands of families helped in this way each year.

World Resources 1996: Urban priorities for action Chapter 5 p103-124.

Slums upgrading examples:

Part of Cali, Colombia

El Mezquital, Guatemala City http://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/upgrading/case-examples/ce-GT-elm.html

Million houses programme, Sri Lanka;

Fortaleza, Brazil

Sambizanga, Angola

Caracas, Venezuela, the Cameba project

Amman and Aqaba, Jordan

World Development Report 1999/2000).

In Porto Alegre, Brazil, (9.6 million) there is a high level of involvement of the people in deciding priorities for action and expenditure. Participatory budgeting is to be rolled out in several other Brazilian cities + other Latin American cities (Buenos Aires, Rosario, Montivideo) (World Development Report 1999/2000, p153).

"The urban experience of third world countries has already shown that upgrading programmes and development initiatives cannot be sustainable as long as their users do not take responsibility for making decisions and/or implementing the programmes" (Baharoglu D 1996 pvii).

Srinavas H. (1995-97), Looking behind the façade: how people manage in squatter settlements – photo essay on Bangalore, India Settlements http://www.gdrc.org/uem/squatters/photo-0.html

UNDP (1991) Cities, People and Poverty: Urban Development Cooperation for the 1990s. A UNDP Strategy Paper. New York: United Nations Development Program.

5 main strategies:

1.alleviate poverty – see next page too (by promoting income-generating activities, including for women)

2.promote enabling strategies for infrastructure and services (access to land, finance and building materials; target supply of urban services). There is mounting evidence that success is to be found in helping people to help themselves: working with communities to establish their priorities, and planning from the outset to achieve as high a level of self-sufficiency as possible, based on appropriate technology and management rather than debilitating dependency based on external funding and other inputs (World Resources 1996: Urban priorities for action Chapter 5 p103-124; Anzorena J et al 1998).

3.improve urban environment by improving living conditions of poor, improving energy use, solid waste management and alternative transport, by enacting laws for environmental management and incorporating the environment into urban planning. In the developed world, where basic infrastructure is largely in place, there is scope to attend to the “green agenda” – biodiversity, deforestation, desertification. The most pressing problems in the developing world relate to the so-called “brown agenda”: improving the basic infrastructure to widen the delivery of water, sanitation, drainage and garbage collection in cost-effective ways. Without tackling environmental problems at this level and thus reducing the health hazards of urban living, higher level goals of sustainability cannot be met.

4.strengthen local government and improve systems for land management. Sort out local government structures and democratic accountability, devolve power ie. improve governance; train local government managers and personnel, improve tax collection, improve information collection, draw on best practice ie. improve capacity.

5.tap private initiative – citizens, NGOs, firms + ensure improved access to environmental information. No longer rely on the public sector, which inevitably cannot accomplish the entire range of tasks.

“Cities need to turn away from an unsuccessful model that leaves the most dynamic providers of essential services outside the planning and implementation framework to one that associates them in productive partnerships” (World Bank, 2000, World Development Report 1999-2000, p139).

The partnership approach has taken off during the last decade.

UN- HABITAT (2003), Water and sanitation in the world’s cities: local action for global goals, Earthscan, London

Anzorena J. et al 1998, Reducing urban poverty: some lessons from experience, Environment and Urbanization 10(1) p167-186

Reviews initiatives combining direct action by low-income groups (ownership, low cost, sustainability), working with NGOs, with some support from one or more external agency to improve living and housing conditions, basic services and livelihoods.

Successful initiatives tend to be aimed at changing relationships between citizens and local government (ie governance), changing policies and practices, multi-sectoral and long-term rather than discrete projects, generate cost recovery.

These sorts of initiatives may present problems to aid donors, but these are the kinds of initiatives that succeed in pulling people out of hopeless, helpless poverty.

"To succeed, any strategy must address the actual concerns of the community affected, which may not match the priorities of the government or the development agency sponsoring the project" (World Resources, 1996, p52).

The housing projects included in the overview paper have been powerful in achieving poverty reduction, not just alleviation, because they have aimed at reducing poor health, acquiring an asset base, improving skill levels, improving ability to organise, negotiate and prioritise.

All the projects involved improving access to credit so that the communities could fund capital expenditure themselves without punitive interest payments. Helps people to manage finance, save, negotiate with external bodies.

There is a need to improve research before projects begin, to monitor impact, critically examine the processes involved, and share the successes and failures to improve the chances of success of future projects – ACTION RESEARCH

It is also increasingly clear that “the experience of countries, and even cities, with their widely differing economic, social, political and physical histories and characteristics, will be different” (Devas and Rakodi 1993 p265) and therefore call for responses which are particular to the context.

Prugh et al argue that sustainability “is not primarily global…we believe communities are the primary locus of responsibility for creating a sustainable world…most of the individual behaviours and attitudes that support sustainability are best nurtured at the community level. The political structure and process necessary for a regionally, nationally and globally sustainable society must be built on a foundation of local communities.”

Prugh, T., Costanza, R. and Daly, H (2000) The Local Politics of Global Sustainability, Island Press, Washington DC

In the case study examples (sections 8.3-8.7), an attempt is made to show how ‘joined up thinking’, innovative solutions and partnership working can deliver results. The issues identified in this opening section and the suggestions about what works best will crop up in a variety of guises.

Urban poverty, housing and land rights

Millions of people in developing countries live without adequate security of tenure or property rights. The United Nations expects this group to increase by nearly 37 million a year to reach 1.5 billion by 2020. The problem is particularly acute in urban areas where the costs of access to legal land and housing are high and rising faster than incomes.

A special Urban Poverty issue of id21's print review of development research, 'insights', explores some of the key debates around providing secure tenure and property rights to the urban poor under conditions of globalisation, rapid urban growth, limited administrative capacity and widespread social, gender and economic inequality.

The issue is guest edited by UK housing and urban development consultant, Geoffrey Payne and includes the following articles:

*  Scott Leckie's examination of evictions as a human rights violation*  Ruth McLeod's critique of the assumption that granting clear land titles will lead to increased investment by the urban poor in permanent housing and increased access to credithttp://www.id21.org/insights/insights48/insights-iss48-art07.html

*  Carole Rakodi on the regulatory processes of informal land delivery *  Robert Home's discussion of land titling and poverty alleviation among peri-urban settlements in Trinidad, Botswana and Zambia *  Alain Durand-Lasserve and Michael Mattingly on the effectiveness of new customary land delivery systems *  Sunil Kumar's focus on rental housing and the livelihoods of tenants and landlords

The issue is available online at http://www.id21.org/insights/insights48/index.html and in print. To receive printed copies of this and forthcoming issues of 'insights', email id21@ids.ac.uk quoting "insights 48" and stating how many copies you would like to receive, or write to us at the postal address below (all id21 publications are free of charge). Back issues of 'insights' are also available at http://www.id21.org/insights/index.html

The id21 online collection contains hundreds of policy-relevant research digests on global development issues. To see the whole collection visit our web-site at: http://www.id21.org/

id21News on email: Receive free, regular updates of the latest research findings from the id21 collection. For subscription information and instructions, visit http://www.id21.org/id21-email/email.html

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any enquiries about this issue of 'insights', or the id21 programme.

Cheryl Brown, Marketing Officer, id21 Tel: +44 (0) 1273 877533   Fax: +44 (0) 1273 877335  Email: c.brown@ids.ac.uk Take a look at id21 http://www.id21.org for the latest in development research.

Institute of Development Studiesat the University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RETel: +44 (0)1273 606261; Fax: +44 (0)1273 621202

8.3Case study of Karachi: upgrading a squatter settlement

This case study illustrates:

· The importance of cities as an element in the economy

Karachi: principal urban centre of Pakistan; at >12 million it is twice the size of the next largest city.

25% of the urban population of Pakistan. 8% of the total population of the country yet 15% of GDP; financial capital, strong manufacturing base and transport hub, including port and airport.

· The rapid rate of urbanisation – 1970, 2000

Very rapid growth immediately after Partition. 435,000 1941; 1.1 mill 1951; 2 mill 1961.

Refugees from many parts of Asia – former E Pakistan after 1971 war; Afghans, Burmese and many others. Still many people coming from rural areas looking for work. The population is projected to be perhaps as high as 20 million by 2010. As Kamal says (1993)“the city is a classic example of the paradox of development that perpetuates underdevelopment” (p180).

Continuing population growth overwhelms attempts to address problems.

· The high level of poverty and low access to basic services

30% of the Pakistani population lives below the poverty line: low income, limited access to basic amenities, (but incomes and the general level of access to amenities is higher than in rural areas – Pakistan National Report for Habitat II p6 & p8). There are over 500 squatter settlements in Karachi, occupying over 6,000 hectares. >40% of the estimated 12 million people live in katchi abadis. Katchi = unfinished, rough; abadi = neighbourhood, quarter

Large numbers of people live in overcrowded houses which are structurally unsafe, vulnerable to effects of pollution, natural disasters and disease (Fernandes 1994).

Table p14 of Karachi handbook Average household size is 7 or 8 people in katchi abadis (Kamal 1993 p179). “The general living conditions in these areas are dismal and insanitary. Haphazard development and construction means that it later becomes very difficult to provide amenities.”

· Planning and management – structure, problems and some positive changes

Structure

Karachi Metropolitan Corporation - management of the city – elected

Karachi Development Authority (set up 1957) – strategic planning – not directly elected.

A variety of other agencies have responsibility for other aspects of running the city.

Problems

· capacity – administrative, operational, infrastructure

· implementation – division between responsibilities eg. See Ahmed N. and Sohail M. (2003), Alternate water supply arrangements in peri-urban localities: awami (people’s) tanks in Orangi Township, Karachi, Environment & Urbanization 15(2), 33-42· public involvement

“Karachi’s official development plans ignored the larger socio-economic reality of the city and as such were unworkable, unaffordable and environmentally disastrous” Urban Resources Centre, Karachi. http://www.urckarachi.org/

Set development and building regulations such that most households were priced out of the market – large plot sizes, expensive materials specified, high on-site infrastructure standards.

Infrastructure and services are woefully inadequate for the size of the city.

Lack of capacity to carry out all the tasks facing the KMC. eg. only collect and dispose of 30% of solid waste.

Management of the city takes up all available funds and there is nothing left for longer term investment (p178 of OPP 1992).

Major problems now with traffic congestion, although only 10% of people travel by car. Roads encroached on by hawkers/vendors. Propose a mass transit system along main arteries but there are many objections – it may create more problems than it solves (p24 of Karachi handbook).

Fragmentation and lack of integration: several authorities are responsible for the implementation of the masterplan and for various urban services. There is a lack of linkage between physical (what is to be built where, transport links) and economic planning. Lack of enforcement of zoning has resulted in inappropriate uses – noxious industry amongst dwellings. Pressures on health and infrastructure. The oldest parts of the city have not been adequately conserved.

Greater public consultation is needed when the KDA prepares the updated plan.

BUT some positive changes:

· The changing approach to illegal squatter settlements

1970-85, informal housing met more than 50% of the city’s housing needs, while the formal sector provided only a small proportion of demand for units.

The typical pattern of squatter settlement development is as follows (Karachi):

Year 1: 10% of plots occupied by huts. Water delivered by tanker. Density 36 people per hectare.

Year 5: 40% of the plots occupied by pukka houses, 10% by huts. Facilities still lacking; densities 170-220 people per hectare.

Year 10: >90% plots are occupied. Community taps; some houses have electricity. Densities increased up to 370 people per hectare.

Year 20: Service connections are available. Densification occurs through division of plots, sub-letting, increased household size, additional storeys. Densities can reach 650 people per hectare.

Up to the 1970s, the main way to try to deal with the problems of housing shortage and illegal occupation of land were dismantling of slums and provision of serviced plots or supposedly low-cost housing. Private landowners bulldozed slums in order to be able to redevelop. Sometimes, alternative plots were provided, but dwellers were not properly compensated and often the places they were moved to were far away from the areas where they earned money. The programmes to provide housing units could never keep pace with demand and in any case were usually out of reach of the really poor. The government planned to build 300,000 housing units but only put up 10,000: not enough money to complete the programme and in any case, the dwellings were often beyond the reach of the poor. Services were inadequate.

Gradually it was realised that this approach of trying to do away with and replace slums was not going to succeed. Slums are not just a transitional feature that can be overlooked. Attention turned to land readjustment policies: trying to regularise squatter settlements - recognising that people have nowhere else to go and setting up systems to transfer title to the land. Enabling strategies to give access to finance, building materials and know-how to improve dwellings and infrastructure. However, evictions have not ceased (Housing by People in Asia, No.15, p.36-39).

1978: Law to state that katchi abadis existing before that date could be regularised. Some exclusions (slums in dangerous areas) and evictions continued. Protests resulted in an updated law in 1983 to permit all areas settled before 1983 to be regularised.

1987: Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority: to map areas, provide ownership rights to occupiers and upgrade lanes, provide water, electricity and sewage. Many projects had input from NGOs and government agencies. Slow progress but rate of evictions has reduced. Any katchi abadi on public land which had more than 40 households established < 23 March 1987 (not on amenity land, liable to health hazards or have high tension electricity cables passing through).

101 squatter settlements have been provided with basic amenities with the help of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank + Government of Pakistan – completed 1993-95.

The advantages are many:

· people who own their property are much more likely to feel that it is worthwhile to invest their own money, time and effort both in the dwelling and in the infrastructure and services for the area as a whole. This has positive repercussions for health, quality of life, the prospects of children and social stability.

· municipal funds are better used and in the case of squatter settlements on public land, there is a chance to recoup some of the value if ownership is regularised and leases bought by occupiers.

· overall there is a wider effect than that which can be achieved by direct local authority housing and infrastructure provision. Local authorities are left to specialise in the highest level of infrastructure: main sewers, treatment plants, main roads, specialist hospitals, high schools.

· The communities can become self-sustaining if a sufficiently enlightened and holistic approach is taken.

Policies to regularise squatter settlements may be augmented by other policies which seek to free up the land market: eg. vacant land taxes, or taxes on uplift in value of landholdings and other methods to reduce the tendency for land speculation. But these are fraught with diffiiculties, not least that many of the powerful people who control municipalities are likely to be major landowners.

· Some successes where innovative, appropriate approaches have been taken

There is a prevailing attitude that it is the government’s responsibility to provide services. Provision of infrastructure and services by the government is not free or low-cost. The authorities could run more efficiently and sustainably if charges were levied at appropriate levels: water, electricity, land, servicing of plots. If the city can adequately tap the knowledge and dynamism of urban society, the urban authorities can concentrate on land titling, appropriate building and development regulations, provision of credit, and trunk infrastructure for buildings and roads while communities themselves help to develop improved environmental and social infrastrcuture. Although many families live below the poverty line, many can afford to make contributions towards the costs of improving their environment. The physical nature of the areas and the vast scale of the problems make it necessary to adopt different approaches: urban basic services. Not attempting to provide highest grade of services. Involve local people and provide technical expertise + training, enabling. People have to be made aware of the nature of the problems and how they can be involved in solving them. Involvement by the citizens themselves is also likely to foster a greater interest in the maintenance of the system.

Changing approach to water and sanitation projects: 1978-88: Appropriate technology; 1988-94: greater concern with institutional and service management issues – community participation, role of women, sustainability, institution-building and human resources development; 1994-98: shift towards more demand-responsive approach (Black M.,1998, Learning what works: a 20 year retrospective in international water and sanitation co-operation, UNDP World Bank Water and Sanitation Program).

Ahmed N. and Sohail M. (2003), Alternate water supply arrangements in peri-urban localities: awami (people’s) tanks in Orangi Township, Karachi, Environment & Urbanization 15(2), 33-42

http://www.undp.org/povertyreport/ENGLISH/ARfront.pdf

8.3.1Orangi Pilot Project:

Orangi (keep map on) is a squatter settlement on the NW side of the city, established in 1965. By 1989 there were >800,000 inhabitants - it was the same size as Hyderabad, the 2nd city of Sindh region. >94,000 dwellings. Very few people are employed by the formal sector; most work for small family enterprises.

Poor environment: in 1980, there were only bucket latrines, soak pits and open drains. The incidence of disease was high and so was expenditure on remedial healthcare.

The Orangi Pilot Project was initiated in the early 1980s by Dr Ahkter Hameed Khan. He helped people to see that they were never going to solve all their problems by lobbying (Fernandes K 1997, How communities organize themselves, City Press, Karachi, p35). The project enabled the forging of links between professionals and the informal sector. The OPP considers itself to be a research institution whose objective is to analyse outstanding problems of Orangi, and then, through prolonged action research and extension education, discover viable solutions. (OPP 1992 – Manual for rehabilitation programmes p123)

The slum dwellers themselves identified sanitation as the top priority for investment. Lane before & after investment. Some external funding was provided but it was recognised at the outset that it would not be possible to fully fund the initiatives. The cost would be a fraction of the formal sector cost if the local community provided the labour and the project was able to advise on the most cost-effective materials and methods. Collecting the money in advance was crucial. Developing local credit facilities has been a key element in sustaining further improvements in the area. People become more willing to contribute towards infrastructure provision (capital costs and on-going charges) when there is confidence that it will work (World Bank, 2000, Entering the 21st century: World development report 1999/2000, OUP).

Created organisations based on lanes – 20-30 households. Work proceeded without a masterplan. Further research was needed after a couple of years to identify how to solve some emerging problems. As a result, massive extension work was carried out to show people how to mix concrete and engineer the work properly. Lanes now organise themselves, maintain the system and ask for assistance when they need it. The majority of the investment and work was from the people themselves. “A clear demonstration has been made that the dilemma of modernising sanitation in katchi abadis can be solved by mobilising managerial and financial resources of the house owners themselves by providing them social and technical assistance” (OPP 1992 – Manual for reehabilitation programmes p131).

List of actions

· Low cost sanitation programme – families have been able to construct their own modern sanitation and connections to sewers. 88211 houses in 5856 lanes have built latrines, lane sewers, collector sewers for about a tenth of the price that it would have cost the municpal authority

More recently, water tanks have been installed by local people to improve water supply – a solution that works better than water pipes in these circumstances (Ahmed and Sohail 2003).

· Low cost housing programme – stronger blocks, cheaper tiling.

· Basic health care and family planning programme – disease prevention, growing vegetables within the community, immunisation, family planning services

· Women’s work centres programme – organises stitchers and other garment workers into family units dealing directly with wholesalers and exporters. Teaches managerial skills and cooperative action.

· Supervised credit programme – to increase production, employment, managerial skills and business integrity

· School programme. There are nearly 600 private schools and the programme helps to upgrade the buildings, equipment and teaching standards.

These programmes of non-formal provision of physical and social infrastructure are seldom a total solution. People do need to be linked into formal healthcare, education, trunk sewers, water mains. Collaboration is needed.

Why have these projects succeeded?

Reasons for success – understanding (research); consultation; reflexive; far-sighted

The various barriers to progress had been understood and overcome by appropriate organisational, financial and technical means. The people were consulted, information was gathered to start with and leaders identified, the scale of implementation was appropriate (lane level), new information could be incorporated as it proceeded, people were trained, external inputs were kept to a minimum, the project improved standard of living and was self-sustaining. An holistic approach was taken.

“When people build their own resources, they make sure that the infrastructure is properly looked after” (Ahmed and Sohail 2003, p41).

The techniques used at Orangi have been widely reported and the aim is for similar initiatives to be set up elsewhere. The reports on OPP give guidance on every aspect of setting up such projects

Initiating a project:

Project office and equipment, staffing, salaries, finding out about existing community organisations and leaders, local government links, determining priorities according to dwellers and understanding how the problems have arisen

Developing a programme to tackle a priority problem:

Motivating people, involving community organisations, technical research eg. question and modify conventional engineering standards and develop a method by which the problem can be tackled incrementally over time, according to the investment capacity of the people.

Monitoring, documentation and evaluation

Recording and analysing the programme means that improvements can be made and accurate details are available for further work.

Training

The community has a growing base of expertise which can be drawn on for further programmes.

Publicising the programme

Much work has been done to write up the work as it has proceeded and disseminate information about how the techniques can be made to work.

If reform of city authorities were combined with the innovative methods of the OPP the price of formal housing would come down to affordable levels and the quality of katchi abadi areas would improve. There would be an overall improvement in quality of life.

Does the Orangi Pilot Project meet the criteria for successful development projects set out in the first section of this lecture?

Is the Orangi PP approach only applicable in the developing world?

If there are some elements that can be transferred, what are they?

8.4Case study of Manizales, Colombia

http://www.ihs.nl/sinpa/publications/bolivia/The_Biomanizales.htm

Velasquez L.S.B., 1998, Agenda 21: a form of joint environmental management in Manizales, Colombia, Environment & Urbanization 10(2), 9-36

Latin American cities have been in the vanguard of reform in governance structures (World Development Report 1999/2000, p145). New public-private partnership model.

8.4.1 Introduction

Colombia: tropical country, rich in ecological and cultural diversity, bedeviled by long term political and social conflict. 75% urban – total population 38 million.

Manizales: in Province of Caldas. 5 degrees north, in dissected terrain high up on the west side of the Andes, below volcano Ruiz. Tropical moist forest with 2200mm rainfall pa.

Population of municipality: 358,000 urban, 57,000 rural.

This case study exemplifies:

· The importance of local conditions in determining problems and appropriate responses

· The influence of economic cycles on generation of problems and responses

· The influence of the Earth Summit in re-orientating national and local policy

· The role of the national and local state in moving towards sustainable development

· The importance of understanding the scale and nature of problems before taking action Here the main environmental problems are: inappropriate transformation of ecosystems (deforestation); water pollution; seismic and geological risks

· The importance of citizen involvement and input from universities and NGOs

· Use of successful cases as models: Manizales contributed to HABITAT II conference 1996

REGIONAL INDICATORS for selected provinces - COLOMBIA 1993

Province

Population

Share of national

Population

Share of GDP

Population below poverty line

Santafé de Bogotá D.C.

5.028.711

14.53%

18.67

14.20%

Tolima

1.179.028

3.41%

3.21

44.90%

Caldas

1.002.438

2.90%

2.31

20.00%

Risaralda

752.257

2.17%

2.67%

24.90%

Quindio

418.273

1.21%

1.69%

19.30%

Chocó

365.782

1.06%

0.38%

60.70%

Source: DANE, National population census 1993, Colombia.

8.4.2Influence of historical events and trends on environmental quality

Founded by gold prospectors 1850. Situated high up for defensive reasons.

Coffee-growing from 1900. Late 1990s: accounted for 72% of agricultural production.

Coffee boom in 1920s. Great wealth allowed grand reconstruction after fires in late 1920s – in European style, involving great remodeling of the landscape.

Depression from 1930. Led to degeneration of urban fabric.

Government investment from 1950, including development of universities.

Coffee boom 1975-80. Expanded production and changed to a new variety: deforestation and degradation of hillslopes. Excessive demand for water for bean washing. Urban ‘renovation’ meant large-scale American style buildings, roads, housing. Overall decline in quality of the environment.

Earthquake 1979: stimulated research on appropriate types of development and carrying capacity of the city’s different areas.

Decentralization of power and increase in municipal autonomy since mid-1980s. Many positive impacts but also conflict between municipalities and regions on environmental management.

“Decentralization and local autonomy for environmental management give rise to problems because of the existence of economic and political interests at odds with the principles of environmental planning” (p.17)

1985: eruption of Ruiz – mud and rock flows. Government encouraged inward investment, but this increased pollution and demand for water.

1994: free international trade in coffee so falling prices. Increase in poverty.

Coffee crisis of mid-1990s affected the whole region. Programmes and projects for economic reconstruction and renewal of infrastructure were formulated at regional level and supported at international level. Some progress in getting municipalities to work co-operatively.

Environmental problems caused by the coffee boom of the 1970s led to National Coffee Growers’ Federation programme of rural education, environmental action, reforestation + research on clean, appropriate technologies for coffee production. Integrated resource management.

8.4.3Responses to environmental crises

National responses

1974: National Institute for Natural Resources (INDERENA) founded.

1990: Environmental Profile: Identified environmental problems and specified action to be taken at municipality level.

1991: New constitution: sustainable development became a guiding principle of the National Development Plan and environmental rights and duties of state and citizens were spelled out. Aimed to reduce resource consumption and pollution output + improve quality of life through an integrated approach to management.

1993: Ministry of the Environment and National Environmental System (after Rio): “ … principles were established for an environmental policy with the institutional, technical, financial and legislative bases to support local, regional and national environmental management” (p18).

Priorities of Colombian Ministry of the Environment Urban environmental priorities

· Promotion of urban environmental research

· Better management of energy consumption

· Shift from private to public transport

· Waste recycling and improved environmental sanitation

· Minimizing environmental impact of industry

· Self-managed growth with improved quality of marginal communities, regeneration of city centres and increased open space

· Education for participation in environmental improvement and support for implementation of LA21 throughout Colombia

There was a call in 1993 for urban environmental profiles to be prepared by municipalities throughout Colombia.

Local responses – steps towards joint environmental management

1990-92: Social welfare and disaster prevention

Problems: Slope degradation and risk from landslides. 7% of population in illegal settlements in areas on steep slopes.

Responses: Studies of disaster-prone areas. Programmes of disaster prevention and disaster readiness, improvement of housing.

Funding: national, regional, local.

Outcomes: reduced numbers of houses in vulnerable locations, improved housing conditions, reforested 360 hectares as protected eco-parks for recreation, environmental conservation and environmental education.

1993-95: economic growth without environmental deterioration; public-private environmental

co-operation

Period of prosperity enabled high levels of investment in environmental management.

Municipal Environmental Profile called for by national government was initiated by the university and carried out by a work team from across institutions.

Environmental profile of Manizales, Colombia

Problems

Strengths

Felling trees – coffee and other crops – soil erosion

Pollution of rivers

High geological and seismic risks

Transport and road infrastructure inappropriate to topography

Dwellings in high risk areas

Loss of urban heritage

Shortage of green spaces

Lack of education and training

Vulnerability to ‘coffee crises’

High biodiversity

Variety of climates

Quality and quantity of water in catchment – hydro-electric and geo-thermal potential

High quality soil

Scenic quality of landscape

Credibility of institutions

Efficient size of the urban area

Many community environmental action groups

NGOs and 8 universities

Moderate population growth

From 1994: Formulation of Local Environment Action Plan (Bioplan), linking social, economic and environmental issues and enabling changes to take place that will add up to meeting national and global objectives. Technical and financial support from department (county) level. Input from universities and NGOs.

First community environmental committees set up, community agenda developed and priorities for action established, community education programmes developed.

Public enterprises transformed into mixed ownership bodies – management of public parks, water supply, solid waste, sanitation. Included community associations in making decisions about enterprises.

First phase of a comprehensive transport plan was developed and put in place. Upgrading of road network; development of cable car project, discouragement to private transport. Newly autonomous local government was able to hypothecate petrol tax to transport project.

Unforeseen event: landslides in an area that had not been considered high risk. Diversion of funds to deal with the emergency.

1996-98: Community environmental training and international management of Bioplan

Pressure from universities, residents’ groups, ecological groups and NGOs for the local authority to implement the bio-plan, rather than retaining it as a long term goal. Programmes were to be enacted: bio-tourism, bio-transport, environmental education, integrated waste management, action plan for Olivares bio-comuna.

Support from training and community development professionals for community environmental committees to implement projects.

Community participation in environmental enterprises was stepped up to the level of contracting them to take on management responsibilities.

Policies became more integrated.

Design of a system to monitor and evaluate sustainable development. Implementation 1998.

After HABITAT II, the city signed co-operation agreements with 6 other cities on technical exchanges, environmental management and education, sanitation and monitoring.

Increased local, national and international funding for projects, including raised local property tax.

The programmes and projects developed under the plan are resulting in improved quality of life and greater capacity for environmental management in some of the poorest communities.

Community environmental action plans

Under the Bioplan, action plans for the 11 comunas of Manizales were drawn up and implemented.

Evaluation shows that most areas experienced difficulties in achieving high levels of participation by institutions and residents.

Some conflicts arose around land use, individual economic interests or political group interests.

8.4.4Evaluation and monitoring of environmental policy

University assistance has been vital in deriving indicators, helping communities to gather data and setting up systems to analyse and disseminate the indicator information.

New system of urban observatories 1998 for gathering and making data available. Also used for environmental education. Data processed centrally and then fed back to observatories. People from comunas trained to operate and co-ordinate the observatories. Programme of publicity to ensure widest possible knowledge and understanding of the goals, process and output and the role of the community.

Table 1 The great range of data collected is combined into 10 composite indicators that are then assigned scores along a scale of three in each of the comunas. The composite indicators have to be relevant, feasible, comprehensible.

Table 2 Indicators include a sub-set relating to ‘organization for community participation’.

Results are used to pinpoint priority issues and areas for action. Also used to monitor effectiveness of any investment made in response to indicator levels.

Still problems in processing, validating and analyzing – heavy human resource implications.

Figure 1 – system of monitoring, following up and implementing development plan

8.5Case study of Nakuru, Kenya

Mwangi S.W., 2000, Partnerships in urban environmental management: an approach to solving environmental problems in Nakuru, Kenya, Environment & Urbanization 12(2) p77-92

This case study illustrates:

· The impact of high urban growth rates

Kenya had a population of 5.2 million in 1948; 23.2 million 1989, estimate for 2001: 31.9 million. Urbanization: 3.9 million urban dwellers 1989; 7.4 million urban dwellers 2001.

Nakuru: 160km NW of Nairobi. 4th largest urban area of Kenya at 1840m, semi-arid area, constrained by physical features.

Population 1948: 17,625; 1989: 163,982; Currently estimated to be 324,000 and it could more than double by 2015.

Heavy demand for urban services.

Water supply to only a third of the town and this is faulty in many respects. Many properties not connected to waste water system.

Sewerage system has only 12,000 connections – 20% of built-up area. 90% of households use pit latrines. 2 sewage treatment works which are operating under capacity because of the low level of connections.

· Problems caused by lack of capacity and inadequate policy and legal framework

Water supply: inadequate personnel; no clear policy on how different parties are able to act

Sewerage: lack of adequate technical staff and skilled manpower

In both cases, there is inadequate revenue collection and inadequate maintenance.

Solid waste management: Only 5 refuse collection vehicles 1997. Nearly 90% of people dump waste.

Only one landfill site + 11 ‘reuse chambers’ in neighbourhoods – partnership approach to provision.

Poor organisation, lack of personnel and equipment, poor waste handling, low public awareness of public health.

· The benefits of co-operation between local actors and outside help

Since 1992, a Belgian professional group has come in to help work towards sustainable urban development, encouraging all relevant bodies and groups to work together. Co-ordination is essential. Weak members can attain results far beyond their expectations. Objectives need to be clearly set out.

· Difficulties of making a participatory approach work

Consideration that apply in all cases: Partnerships take time and resources to set up; tension as traditional power relations are destabilized; an undue burden of responsibility can be shifted onto the poor to solve their own problems; weak conceptualisation of partnership can result in dominant social actors cornering the process.

In the case of Nakuru: There has been a lack of additional resources from national and local level to help the Local Agenda 21 process. Some excluded groups have not been thoroughly involved. Many people still fail to see the point of partnership working. There is a need for radical restructuring of institutions if partnership approaches are to deliver results.

8.6 Case study of Pampas de San Juan, Lima, Peru

National context: 19 million urban dwellers - over 75% of the population.

Poor coverage of basic services. High levels of poverty. High levels of environmental degradation.

1980s: devolution of power, responsibilities and financial resources to municipalities. But still municipalities have a very small proportion of the national budget to spend directly. Functions laid down in law. (Some recentralization since 1990.)

Legislation is fragmented; institutions lack co-ordination and capacity. The task of streamlining has barely begun. Since 1994, CONAM (National Environment Council) is meant to co-ordinate environmental policies across government and rationalize the chaotic array of laws relating to the environment. Each ministry has an environmental office that is meant to co-ordinate its policies through CONAM.

Even in 1996, President made it clear that Peru’s priority was economic development.

In the absence of effective leadership from above, and with increasing evidence of the effects of environmental damage, communities have had to take action.

“…a contradictory national framework and the absence of political will within central government to address environmental problems do not stop local governments, institutions and populations coming to agreements and forming successful environmental action plans in their cities. The most important factors in developing such action plans are the perseverance and capacity of local institutions, leaders, community representatives, professionals and local authorities to negotiate agreements” (Miranda and Hordijk, 1998, p.80)

Cities for Life Forum established 1994: 41 institutions in 18 Peruvian cities.

It started as an exercise in gathering best practice examples in the run up to HABITAT II, 1996. Soon developed a wider aim to generate, develop and strengthen institutional capacity, foster leadership and preventative approach to environmental problems, promote and strengthen participatory processes. Worked on ‘peruvianizing’ Agenda 21, which was recognized as a powerful instrument, bringing coherence to many scattered interventions.

Communities need an enabling context. Great thirst for information about how to tackle problems. Plans of action were generated by the people themselves, rather than being developed by experts and imposed. The Forum unites people who have long worked in isolation. Annual prize for a city that has tackled a critical aspect of its LA21 (though is this a healthy way to stimulate action?) Decentralized training is delivered at various levels on conceptual theory, experiences, instruments, practice.

Concertacion: more than just consultation or co-ordination; implies not only involvement of all stakeholders in discussions, but achievement of agreement acceptable to all stakeholders.

(Lopez Follegatti J.L., 1999, Ilo: a city in transformation, Environment & Urbanization, 11(2), p181-202, p187)

Lima: Primate city of 8 million people.

San Juan is one of the more recently illegally settled areas of southern Lima, Andes foothills.

Problems of accessibility, basic services, building. Settled during 1980s. Land ownership legalised from 1986, but continued illegal settlement beyond these areas, so a mixture of statuses.

The people have tried to organise their settlements, but maps have often been inaccurately drawn and the plans based on these have therefore been flawed. Piecemeal development ( lack of coherence in the urban environment – environmental, health and economic problems eg. incomplete road sections, other incomplete infrastructure, garbage dumps on open ground.

Despite some decentralisation and clearer statement of local government responsibilities, functions and powers during 1980s, there is still a lack of clarity. The district municipality lacked the vision and financial and human capacity to take a lead in developing LA21. There was no concept of LA21. Efforts had been concentrated on relocating street vendors and building roads (funded by national government). Municipalities have a very small share of national budget to spend on priorities identified at city level. Converted to looking at different priorities by the prospect that calling their efforts ‘LA21’might attract outside funding. The mayor is now supporting the people’s ideas for implementing LA21.

LA21 in San Juan de Pampas

People held workshops to analyse problems and sort out priorities for action:

· paved roads, paths, improving solid waste collection, greening the area (which required suitable water supply)

· resolution of all property rights

· needed outside assistance: experts, finance, other actors

Closely-linked and mutually supportive elements of project: Kite

· small-scale office for neighbourhood doctors – technical assistance; community development fund

· developing LA21

· training young professionals to work with people in a difference way

· reflection and debate

Project began in 8 settlements + areas of green land which had been invaded.

Long-term plan, taking account of inhabitants’ existing initiatives, their needs and aspirations. Built on existing habits of mutual aid.

Step 1: improve urban development plans and integrate across a wider area.

Method: invited people to workshop to draw their childhood environment, current situation, vision and aspirations. Each person spoke about their drawings.

Advantages: briefer, more to-the-point, reflective and more comprehensive, richer account, a different approach which brings out unexpected ideas. Each person has a chance to present views. A chance for grievances to be aired and to move on past this to positive common proposals.

Then plans developed:

1. current situation with good and bad sites marked. SWOT analysis.

2. possible future

Experts familiarised with the reality.

Surprising for experts to find that the priority was a greener, cleaner environment. Urgent need for water and sewerage services, but this had to be delivered as part of overall goal of greening and cleaning.

Action:

· cleaning up garbage dumps and preparation of areas for parks

· preparation of integrated environmental plan, negotiation with neighbourhood leaders and presentation of plan to neighbourhoods before publication.

Incremental approach rather than high cost all-encompassing change in short time scale.

The more people see their ideas being taken on board, the more committed they become.

Step 2: From July 1999: small pilot projects: park, staircase, community hall. Partnership to realise projects.

Integrated approach led by community: to improve environment and facilities, increase opportunities for income-generation which could partly be used to pay for electricity and water.

Longer term vision: greening of area under pylons, using treated waste water from improved treatment facilities.

Critical success factors: continuity of leadership, process of concertacion. The more people in the neighbourhood are involved, the better the control over the leaders. People need a continuous stream of information so they can understand what is happening and apply pressure effectively.

Problems:

Across the country:

Lack of commitment at national level.

Lack of understanding that problems ultimately have environmental linkages.

Low level of public involvement; limited participation of community leaders and business people.

In Pampas de San Juan:

· Neighbourhood quarrels, political agendas, mistrust. Require time and patience to resolve.

· Time scales of various kinds need to be longer:

Social time: community discussions to reach a lasting and strong agreement

Political time: life of administrations

Project time: structuring and goals of external funding.

Need to get away from setting goals at outset, without input from communities. Project finance is less helpful than institutional finance that does not have fixed time horizons. Time delays where each small project has to be subject to bidding for funds. Budgets have become increasingly rigid as accountability has become a watchword.

Hordijk M., 1999, A dream of green and water: community-based formulation of a Local Agenda 21 in peri-urban Lima, Environment & Urbanization, 11(2), p11-29.

Miranda L. and Hordijk M., 1998, Let us build cities for life: the national campaign of Local Agenda 21s in Peru, Environment & Urbanization, 10(2), p69-102.

Message from the author late 1999:

The work in San Juan is proceeding nice. When the article has been written it was still unclear whether the neighbourhood could solve its internal problems. By now they have. And there are more and more partners showing up that are interested to work on the implementation of the Local Agenda. A private company has been planting 4500 trees and is now looking for partnerships to realize the irrigation...

It is a thrilling process to be part of.

Michaela Hordijk

8.7 Article about Bogotá

http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=3977&l=en

Cities of joy

Jay Walljasper

This article appeared in Ode issue: 17

Parks, public squares, trees, playgrounds, the world’s longest pedestrian street. As a mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa showed us that a city can be designed to serve the citizen’s need for joy and pleasure. An interview with a visionary.

It feels a bit strange to be sitting in the middle of one of the world’s wealthiest neighborhoods, and to be so thoroughly engrossed in conversation about the prospects of poor cities across the planet. But here, in an office building at New York University on the island of Manhattan, is where former Bogotá mayor Enrique Peñalosa is working on a book about how life can be improved for people in mega-cities of the developing world. That is, when he’s not in Beijing or Delhi or Dar-es-Salaam or Jakarta or Mexico City sharing his visionary plans with local leaders. Peñalosa’s ideas stand as a beacon of hope for cities of the South, which will absorb much of the world’s population growth over the next half-century. These are places that suffer the usual complications of rapid urban expansion—pollution, public health, slums, crime, unemployment, sprawl, corruption, traffic, all of which is aggravated by high levels of poverty. Based on his experiences in Bogotá, however, Peñalosa believes it’s a major mistake to give up on these places, no matter how out-of-control their problems appear. “If we in the Third World measure our success or failure as a society in terms of income, we would have to classify ourselves as losers until the end of time,” declares Peñalosa, a tall man in casual clothes with salt-and-pepper hair and a trim beard, who looks more like a coach than a politician or professor. “With our limited resources, we have to invent other ways to measure success. This might mean that all kids have access to sports facilities, libraries, parks, schools, nurseries.”This is exactly what Peñalosa set out to do as mayor of Colombia’s capital city. And the results were impressive enough that Colombia finally got international press about something other than drug trafficking, guerrilla kidnappings, and bloody civil war. Indeed, some observers claim that this city of 6.6 million offers practical lessons not just for helping poor cities, but for upgrading the quality of life in Western cities.In just three years, 1998-2001 (terms limits prevented him from seeking a second term) Peñalosa’s Administration accomplished the following:· Created the Trans-Milenio, a bus rapid transit system (BRT), which now carries a half-million passengers daily on special bus lanes that offer most of the advantages of a metro at a fraction of the cost.· Built 52 new schools, refurbished 150 others, added 14,000 computers to the public school system, and increased student enrollment by 34 percent. · Established or refurbished 1200 parks and playgrounds throughout the city.· Built three large and 10 neighborhood libraries.· Built 100 nurseries for children under five, and found permanent sources of funding.· Improved life in the slums by bringing water to 100 percent of Bogotá households, and buying undeveloped land on the outskirts of the city to prevent real estate speculation. This land is to be developed as affordable housing with electrical, sewage, and telephone service as well as space reserved for parks, schools, and greenways. · Saw the murder rate fall by two-thirds. (This was almost all conventional crime; contrary to expectations, terrorist acts are rare in Bogotá.)· Reclaimed the sidewalks from motorists, who traditionally saw them as either a passing lane or a parking lot. “I was almost impeached by the car-owning upper classes,” Peñalosa notes, “ but it was popular with everyone else.”· Established 300 kilometers of separated bikeways, the largest network in the developing world. · Created the world’s longest pedestrian street, 17 kilometers crossing much of the city, as well as a 45- kilometer greenway along a path that had been originally slated for an eight-lane highway. · Reduced peak traffic by 40 percent with a system where motorists must leave cars at home during rush hour two days a week. He also raised parking fees and local gas taxes, with half of the proceeds going to fund the new bus transit system. · Inaugurated an annual car-free day, where everyone from CEOs to janitors had to had commute to work in some way other than a private automobile. · Planted 100,000 trees.Project for Public Spaces (PPS), a New York-based organization that works around the world on civic issues, has named Peñalosa to its great “placemakers” list alongside such giants in the field as Jane Jacobs. David Burwell, a strategic analyst with PPS, who has long experience working on environmental, transportation, and community issues, calls Peñalosa, “One of the great public servants of our time. He views cities as being planned for a purpose—to create human well-being. He’s got a great sense of what a leader should do—to promote human happiness.”

No one can accuse Peñalosa thinking of thinking small. As we sit in his office at New York University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, looking out on the bustle of Greenwich Village below, he muses about the day when cities of the developing world might surpass New York or Paris in terms of sheer joyfulness in urban living. As he confides this, his reserved manner gives way to a broad and infectious grin, which I can guess has proved very useful through the years in helping him get things done. “You must remember that Third World cities are still two-thirds unbuilt,” he tells me, explaining that by 2050 most of these cities will be three times larger than today,  which means there is still a lot of city planning to do. “We can take advantage of what’s been done—mistakes and successes—by cities in the developing world.”Opening the window and gazing down at sidewalks filled with people, he says, “ I love New York. I feel so much energy here. But there is so much more that you could do: pedestrian streets, more parks, bikeways, open up the waterfronts. The old sections of European cities are very beautiful. The closest thing you’ll see to what I am talking about are Danish or Dutch cities, but even they could be improved. They need a network of pedestrian streets through the whole city, not just the center, and they need more sports facilities and parks and green space. We could do all these things in Bogotá and other developing cities. I think you can have a city that combines the best of suburbs and the best of old cities.“In Spanish we have this saying that it doesn’t cost anything to dream,” he notes, “So I say let’s play. Let’s just imagine how you want your home to be. How you want your kids to live. Do you want to walk or drive to get bread? That’s the basis of thinking about cities. We have not given enough thought to how we live. We have left too many of these decisions to others.” A more serious look now crosses his face. “Ninety-nine percent of Third World people have never seen a Dutch or Danish city, where you see people on bikes everywhere. A city full of cars is not a good model for us.”

“The images we get from the United States are a very damaging model to Third World cities,” he continues. “We need to avoid undesirable developments such an urban sprawl. People in the U.S. now recognize there are problems with building cities for cars and not for people, and we in the Third World need to know that. Pedestrians and bicyclists should be given as much importance as motor-vehicles; even more so in developing country cities, where most households don’t own cars.” It’s not that Peñalosa hates cars. It’s that he loves lively public places where people of all backgrounds gather to enjoy themselves and each other—places that barely exist in cities where the car is king. Public places are even more important in poor cities than in wealthy ones, he says, because poor people have nowhere else to go. “We all need to see other people. We need to see green. Wealthy people can do that at clubs and private facilities. But most people can only do it in public squares, parks, libraries, sidewalks, greenways, public transit,” he declares, turning back for another look out the window. Here inside his office, Peñalosa reminds me of a caged animal, ready at any moment to break away for the freedom of the city outside.

Enrique Peñalosa has become an international star of sorts among sustainable urban designers, so I automatically assumed he was trained as a city planner and inspired by long involvement in the environmental movement. But the truth is that he arrived at these ideas from a completely different direction. “My focus has always been social—how you can help the most people for the greater public good. But if you are thinking constantly about how to help the environment, you come to the same conclusions.”Growing up in the ‘60s, when revolutionary fervor in South America was strong, Peñalosa became an ardent advocate of social justice and income redistribution—views that were solidified upon moving as a teen-ager to suburban Washington, D.C, where the only other Latinos he encountered worked as bus boys and maids. “I was obsessed with socialism,” he recalls.

Attending Duke University in the United States on a soccer scholarship, he studied economics and history and later moved to Paris to earn a doctoral degree in management and public administration. Paris was a marvelous education in the possibilities of urban living, and he returned home with aspirations of bringing European-style city comforts to the working-class of Bogotá. The experience of his first years out of universitiy, managing a greenhouse operation, working in an investment banking firm, and dabbling in politics, redefined his political views-- as seen by the title of his first book, Capitalism: The Best Option. But this does not mean, he hastens to tell me, that he abandoned the quest for social justice. “We live in the post-communism period, in which many have assumed equality as a social goal is obsolete,” he explains. “Although income equality as a concept does not jibe with market economy, we can seek to achieve quality-of-life equality. Urban policy can be a powerful means to achieve equality in quality-of-life.”So over the last 20 years, Peñalosa—greatly influenced by his father, a one-time Bogotá city council member and official of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., who became the Secretary General of the United Nation’s first Habitat conference on human settlement—has been looking for new ways to level the playing field between poor citizens and wealthier ones. “The least a democratic society should do,” he says, “ is to offer people wonderful public spaces. Public spaces are not a frivolity. They are just as important as hospitals and schools. They create a sense of belonging. This creates a different type of society—a society where people of all income levels meet in public space is a more integrated, socially healthier one.”

“In Bogotá, our goal was to make a city for all the children. The measure of a good city is one where a child on a tricycle or bicycle can safely go anywhere. If a city is good for children, it will be good for everybody else. Over the last 80 years we have been making cities much more for cars mobility than for children’s happiness.”Peñalosa has been taking this message all over the world in lecture tours sponsored by the World Bank; the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), a New York –based group promoting sustainable transportation in the developing world; and Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-CE), a Utrecht, Netherlands-based group promoting bike transportation. “You cannot overestimate the impact Peñalosa has had, on a personal level, in ten or twelve countries,” notes Walter Hook, director of ITDP. “He takes these ideas, which can be rather dry, and speaks emotionally about the ways they affect people’s lives. He has the ability to change how people think about cities. He’s a revolution that way.”Bogotá’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is of particular interest to public officials in the developing world who want to defuse traffic jams but don’t have funds to build a metro or tram system. Hook gives Peñalosa major credit for the decision to build a new busway in Jakarta, Indonesia, which opened to great acclaim last February. He also played a role in getting things rolling for busways in Beijing, Delhi, Capetown, Lima and Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, as well as ambitious bikeway projects in Mexico City, Capetown and Dakar, Senegal.

Peñalosa outlined his vision for developing cities of the 21st century city in a appealing detail as part of a speech last May for the Association of Sustainable Mobility in Switzerland: “I invite you to imagine for a minute a 20-mile long, 50-feet wide road only for pedestrians and bicycles through your neighborhood, regardless whether you live downtown or in a suburb. At intersections there could either be bridges, underpasses for motor vehicles, or simply traffic lights. Ideally it would link your neighborhood to a waterfront, a large park, a shopping area, a library and schools, just to mention a few examples. You and your neighbors could ride bicycles with your children to the beach or the library, go jogging. Older citizens could walk to a café, and babies could be taken out for fresh air in their carriages. It could completely transform a neighborhood’s life and even significantly increase property values. Yet the cost of creating such a road would be minimal, if done at the time of laying city plans. Where new areas are being urbanized, large networks of such pedestrian and bicycle roads can easily be incorporated.”

After several hours of conversation, interrupted once by university maintenance men coming in to fix the loose window that Peñalosa favors for surveying the city below (a moment in which I saw the mayor’s charm and persuasiveness in full blossom as he inquired if they were going to seal it permanently shut), it is now time for lunch. Peñalosa tentatively suggests we could go to the faculty club, a presumably swank spot. I counteroffer that Washington Square Park is only two blocks away, and see a smile light up his face. We swing by a local deli, where Peñalosa holds simultaneous Spanish conversations with two clerks from the Dominican Republic while continuing to answer my questions in English, and then stroll over to Washington Square to enjoy a lovely summer afternoon.  The park, the heart of Greenwich Village and ground zero for any number of international social trends from ‘60s folk music to break dancing, was saved from plans to run a highway right through it by protests from the neighborhood. As Peñalosa and I sit down on a bench with our sandwiches, we stop talking for the first time all day and just watch the show. Kids play. Mothers chat. Students read. Construction workers sip coffee. Business executives nap. Street people sing. When a, pretty woman glides by on her bike, Peñalosa nods his head and laughs, “Bikes are a wonderful thing in cities. They’re sensual. You can watch all the other people on their bikes, meet your friends, stop to talk.”“All these issues we’re talking about are from the soul,” he adds. “Economics, urban planning, ecology are only the means. Happiness is the goal. Places like this make people happy. We have a word in Spanish, ganas, which means a burning desire. I have ganas about public life…”Just then a young couple walks by pushing their bikes.He looks over at me, his brown eyes shining. “Have you seen all the bikes in Copenhagen?”

Penalosa concluded his visiting professorship at NYU a few weeks after this interview and moved back to Bogotá to work with a foundation he started Por el Pais Que Queremos (For the Country We Want and Wish). He is considering a run for Colombia’s presidency in 2006.

8.7Case study of Leeds

These notes give some background to the evolution of policy for sustainable development in Leeds during the 1990s. At attempt is made to show how the various strands of policy development and action are related to each other.

The district now includes 715,400 people and some rural areas as well as the city itself.

The changing nature of the economy has influenced the environment - some issues have become less important; others more so.

Decline in manufacturing now about 13% (LCC website) – still 3rd in UK;

increase in service sector – about 80% - 308,560 people. Top growth areas since 1981 all in service sector.

Financial and business services alone account for around 85,000 jobs, which is 22% of the total.

The public sector accounts for about the same number of jobs as financial and business services.

Impact: there is lower industrial pollution: cleaner environment – less damage to water, air and land.

There has been much effort to reorientate and restructure public, private and community activities. Regeneration of inner and central areas has greatly improved the post-industrial landscape, created more jobs, improved quality of life for many.

Service sector growth has helped to make Leeds city centre vibrant.

A survey of people’s impressions of Leeds shows that for people within the area, top of the list of ‘best things about Leeds’ is shopping! (Vision II consultation 2003).

But increased wealth means increased consumption and the associated environmental damage – energy use and CO2 emissions, congestion, waste generation (improved recycling overtaken by addition waste arising).

Resources to protect and enhance the natural environment?

Two speed city: who is gaining from this development? Who is employed in the growing sectors? Who is left behind? Who can afford to shop, eat, socialize, live in the city centre?

Increase in part-time and female workforce; decline in opportunities for men: large numbers of people have less secure jobs or no access to jobs. Growth in employment of people living outside the city.

Unemployment is concentrated in inner city wards

Unemployment is also concentrated amongst ethnic minorities.

As in every city, poor health is concentrated amongst those on low incomes and crime levels are highest in the poorest areas.

“Leeds has a GDP per head significantly above the regional average, but it also has some of the worst levels of deprivation in the region, and more people unemployed than in any other district” (Leeds Economic Bulletin April 99).

When considering the nature and impact of environmental policy in Leeds, bear in mind these issues about how widespread - socially, sectorally and geographically - the benefits are. Intergenerational/intragenerational equity? How can the economy be strengthened without doing increasing environmental damage and without widening the gaps between different groups in society? Continuing social segregation and exclusion?

Are some trends in the city actually working against sustainability, despite the all the efforts?

8.7.2Actions to improve Leeds’ environment – what is in place?

There is a Local Agenda 21 in Leeds but it was only produced at the last moment before the deadline in December 2000. It pulls together many initiatives that had been enacted throughout the previous decade, reorientating the economic and social environment as well as improving the physical environment.

Leeds City Council Green Strategy 1991: the LA has wide responsibilities, a £1 billion budget and has over 32,000 employees - equivalent to a small town. The way that they carry out their own activities and the services they provide is significant for resource consumption and pollution. Green Strategy prepared following consultation.

Strategy: to achieve a sustainable city "which consumes less, is selective in what it consumes, produces less waste, recycles waste, and not only protects but enhances its natural and built environment". And aim "to develop a safe, healthy local environment which provides the best quality of life possible for its residents and is clean, unpolluted, attractive, ecologically sound and free from dereliction and degradation".

Challenges and objectives across all areas of activity.

1995: review of Green Strategy: direct effects (council's own operations) and service effects in the areas of energy, transport, waste, pollution. Gives a summary of the aims, the initiatives and some information on how far the initiatives have progressed.

Unitary Development Plan (replaced 2 level planning for metropolitan areas): revised draft June 1993; covers period up to 2001, but only adopted in early 2001. The period covered by the plan was extended up to 2006. Already under revision.

http://www.leeds.gov.uk/pageView.asp?style=0&identifier=2003618_607586086

Much has occurred under the banner of The Leeds Initiative, set up in 1990.

Partnership approach to development of the city.

The approach to environmental issues has grown and developed over the 1990s as the sustainable development agenda has matured.

Environment is one of the Leeds Initiative themes

Leeds Environment City Partnership (LECP) (Leeds Environment City Initiative until 1999)

LECP is an overarching label, a focus for the various strands of environmental policy and action in the district. LECP itself comes under the umbrella of the Leeds Initiative.

Started with LEAF (community groups) and LEBF (businesses) in 1992, developed with Environment City status 1993.

Action on many other fronts during the 1990s, including on recycling, transport, biodiversity.

Vision for Leeds – built on what was already being done in many spheres.

The Vision for Leeds exercise 1997-99 by Leeds Initiative resulted in a major boost to coherence of action across the various elements of city planning and management. Wide consultation process to decide priorities for action under the following headings, and then specific strategies produced:

· competing in a global economy (attracting inward investment and tourism, building on strengths, partnerships for investing in infrastructure) Economic Strategy

· making the most of people (education, training, equal opportunities, improving access to culture, sports and arts) Cultural Strategy

· ensuring sustainable development (transport choices, waste, information)

· creating better neighbourhoods and confident communites (harnessing energy of young people, making neighbourhoods safer, care in the community, tackling poverty) Neighbourhood renewal strategy. Leeds Initiative won £25m from SRB under Better neighbourhoods and confident communities: 7 year programme to tackle inner city crime, improve community safety, create jobs, raise achievements in schools and provide a range of skills training.

After the implementation of the Vision, central government policy meant that various changes had to take place in the way that councils were organised and how they delivered their services. Amongst these changes are the duty to ensure the well-being of the local populace – including environmental quality. There were also moves to try to bring government closer to the people and the creation of 16 local community involvement teams with a co-ordinating role between the stakeholders of each area.

LI has been engaged in Vision for Leeds Phase 2, 2002-2003. Report by consultancy in 2002; consultation 2003; final version of strategy due end 2003.

Themes:

· Going up a league as a city – making Leeds one of the best places in the country to live, work and learn, and improving the quality of life for everyone

· Narrowing the gap between the most disadvantages people and communities and the rest of the city.

· Developing Leeds’ role as the regional capital, contributing to the national economy as a competitive European city, supporting and supported by an increasingly prosperous region.

8.7.3 Assessing progress

Completed initiatives, raised awareness, changed behaviour, meeting of targets/standards (including under Best Value and EMAS).

Indicators published 2001

Latest report:

http://www.leedsinitiative.org/initiativeDocuments/2003710_75208682.pdf

PAGE 7 shows results

State of the environment report shows that the environmental performance of Leeds is at best patchy. Air and water quality are improving, but waste arising and water demand are not yet on a sustainable trajectory, and in other key areas, performance against targets is very slow, or difficult to evaluate due to a lack of available data.

The state of the Leeds environment

Indicator

Trend

Target

CO2 emission

?

Uncertain due to limited data. Falling in housing, rising in transport.

None for city overall but 30 % reduction in housing sector (1996-2011). Aspiration to collect data to permit city wide assessment

Renewable energy use

Increasing but from very low level

Not set. Future regional capability is estimated at 22.5 % by 2021

Air quality

Improving and of high quality

Air quality management areas designated to eliminate standard exceedences by 2005

Waste arising

X

Domestic waste increased 24 % 1997-2001

Reduce annual growth rate to 3 % by 2005, and 0.5% by 2020

Waste recycling

Increased from 8% in 1997 to 12 % in 2001

Recycle 22.7 % of all city waste by 2005. Recycle 30 % of household waste by 2010

Brownfield use

Increased to 75 % in 2001

Target of 82 % in 2004

Contaminated land

Declining. 7 % of sites cleaned since 2000

No target, remediation follows development

River water quality

Improving, but much of Aire remains 'poor'

Compliance with statutory water quality objectives

Water demand

X

Rising by c. 1 % year

No target set for region

Noise and other nuisance

?

Uncertain, due to limited data

No targets, although noise reduction targets may be required following EU directive

Environment and deprivation

X

27 % of households in fuel poverty in 2002

National target of no fuel poverty by 2015

Biodiversity

?

Decline in key species and habitats

Various (see Table 3 and the Leeds Biodiversity Action plan)

Built heritage

?

Uncertain. Data on extent but not condition

No targets are defined

Source: Derived from LCC (2003)

The improvements are partial improvements - less impact than hoped for.

Not yet a sustainable city:

· Some initiatives are slow to get off the ground. Limited involvement from local people or businesses, or the council either because of financial implications or lack of motivation.

· The framework of national policy is not always as strong as it might be. If regulations and standards were more exacting, businesses, organisations, households would have a greater incentive to change.

eg. Leeds has joined forces with other cities in trying to tighten up government commitments on CO2 reduction (Cities for Climate Change) but pressure from below has not yet had an effect.

· Those with economic motives manage to highjack policy - change the direction, limit the rate of change towards environmental improvements.

eg.the priority for the City Council is for Leeds to be a major European city and this conflicts with many of the environmental objectives.

Expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport.

Gibbs D (University of Hull) GEC-O newsletter 17 1998: Integration of environment into local policy is far from being thoroughly achieved. Local issues are paramount and decision-making dominated by short-termism; lack of funding, powers, training and appropriate policy context for actions. He sees more hope as new professionals come into the system for whom an holistic, integrated approach is part of their way of thinking.

� Informal employment includes:

Primary and secondary activities: farming, market gardening, building, crafts, shoemakers, brewing and distilling

Tertiary enterprises: housing, transport, utilities, renting

Small scale distribution: sellers, traders, hawkers, carriers

Other services: musicians, launderers, shoe-shiners, barbers, night-soil removers, photographers, vehicle repairs, brokers, ritual services, medicine

(Dickenson et al 1996 A geography of the Third World p206)

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GEOG3360 – Lecture 7